Los Gatos: Town explores parking space finder technology

It's happened to everyone: You're driving around in circles, looking for a place to park, when you spot a space one aisle over. You rush to get there, only to find someone else has nabbed it a few seconds ahead of you.

It's frustrating.

That scene is often repeated in places like downtown Los Gatos, where parking is at a premium.

So the town council has greenlighted a plan that would use sensors to alert drivers to open parking spaces. It's not a done deal, but rather something that will be pursued.

The sensor technology was developed by a Foster City company called Streetline.

Streetline embeds a hockey puck-size sensor into the parking space pavement that transmits parking data to a repeater. Drivers input their destination's address and use an app to access the data.

"I'm trying to picture this," Councilman Joe Pirzynski said. "I'm driving through Lot 3 with my phone, looking at the app, hoping that all of a sudden something will appear in front of me and nobody else is on his or her phone. I'm going to go as fast as I can to find that spot, and so is that other person."

Parks and public works director Matt Morley said the app will "direct people to a block of spaces, not just one."

Morley said the town can use the technology to send people to underutilized parking spaces, and it would give the town a snapshot of how often dedicated electric vehicle and handicap spaces are being used.

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Streetline quoted a one-time set up fee in excess of $250,000, with ongoing annual costs of about $160,000. Town officials weren't willing to make that kind of investment, but they did authorize Morley to move forward with Streetline and pursue a sponsor or partner who would be willing to share some of the cost. Cisco Systems, for example, partnered with the city of San Mateo to implement Streetline.

Morley said the town would not seek a partnership with alcohol or tobacco companies.

"I have used ... an application like this in the Mission in San Francisco," Vice Mayor Marcia Jensen said. "It directed us to where we could park, and we wound up in a garage that was about two blocks from where we wanted to go. It was fantastic."

Councilwoman Barbara Spector also weighed in with a positive experience. "In Palo Alto if you're looking for [an electric vehicle] charging station, you can use this methodology to find the charging stations in the parking lots, and yes, it does work," Spector said. "You find them; you do get to them."

Although California is a hands-free state that doesn't allow people to talk or text on cell phones while driving, state law was recently changed to allow people to use their smart phones for navigation purposes.

The Streetline concept was endorsed by the town's Transportation and Parking Commission. Exploring technologies like Streetline is on the commission's short list of high-priority action items.

But since the commission meets only five or six times a year, members asked the council for permission to meet monthly so they can get more done. The council unanimously said yes.

Other high-priority items on the commission's list include adjusting the rules that govern on-street vehicle sales, studying traffic around Los Gatos schools and expanding the number of electric vehicle charging stations in town.